Music Friday Blog

Both artists are bringing us new albums. Patricia Vonne is a ninth-generation Tejana she embodies every indigenous musical style in Texas and is an excellent singer-songwriter as well as singer and multi-instrumentalist and band leader who will release her Top of the Mountain album next week. Coloradan Andy Sydow will bring us his fourth album, Reasons For Departure due out this month. Should be fun.

We are blending our two radio shows, Music FridayLive! and the bi-lingual MuscaFusionLA this Friday with our interview with Costa Rican hip-hop star NAKURY. The interview will be in English, since mi espcanol es no sufficiente for entrevistas (not good enough for interviews) but we will talk with a pop star who sings in Spanish and talks in English so no problema.

We will also talk with a worldwide phenomenon, Mira Smiley, who does everything from play the banjo to lead choreses, harmonies and choirs for the BBC and TV shows. Quite a show this week.

Who knew Norway produced blues bands? Well, they do, and damn good ones, like this week's guests, the NaveBlues. Combining blues, alt-rock and jazz, there is nothing like them. I am so looking forward to this show. And, I get to talk with Eva Ross. I met Eva at SOFAR concert and said this woman has got to be on the show...so she is.

Two women from different ends of the music world and different parts of the country - Texas and New York. Blues, rap, party gooves. these two do it all and they have great stories to tell... including, maybe, why Texas is producing so many great young female blues players.

We are so fortunate to have two powerful women with two very different stories, but one thing in common: this started off as classical musicians and moved to popular - dreampop in case and experimental jazz in the other. Tune in.

Sorry we are late getting the site refreshed this week. NationBuilder, our platform suffered a complicated loss of access which brought the platform down for several days...you could find it but we could not update it. Happily, all is well now and our guests this week are here in their glory. Cuesta Loeb and Cusi Coyllur.

LANITA brings us her new album and songs from her debut EP, Listen to Your Heartbeat, produced by the legendary Don Was. She worked with other with award-winning artists and producers such as Colbie Caillat, Jessica Sanchez, and Teddy Riley. She co-founded Little Monarch with Casey Kalmenson, and rocks stages and festivals throughout Southern California. And she has a thoughful story to tell about going from hometown venues to national TV in only 3 years. On the same program will be the duo Glass Mansions, who decided to change the name of their band, Death of Paris, after the 2015 terror attacks in that city. They have stripped down from a larger band to the two of them and it works, really really well.

Two very different talents, but both with film and tv soundtracks and solid recordings and live appearances. And both willing to speak their minds. Kirsten rocks hip-hop, pop love songs. She also acts and models. David has soundtracks on several TV shows and his video on Lady Liberty and immigration has gone viral. Tune in!

There will be music, but mostly this Friday there will be the kind of stories that our society needs now. Uplifting stories. True stories. Stories of how music and guitars can help broken people. Wayne Kramer, guitarist for MC% spent 2 yers in jail, where he actually learned music and got the inspiration to join with Billy Bragg to create adn orgnization tht uses guitars to help prioners start new, prdoctive and fulfillng lives. He is join by one of those prisones, Ken Hartman, who, after 34 years in jail, now works for Jail Guitar Doors.

In our second segment we tgalk with H"Aitina, who has sbeen immersed in music since high school, produces several top hits and is now back wtih a new EP. She is truely a queen of R&B and soul, and jazz, and just about everything great music.

We are doing something different this week - we are giving the entire show over to a single guest, Gina Chavez. she has been on the show before and I have seen her live twice and let me tell you, one show is not enough to contain her. A singer/songwriter with a shelf full of awards and a huge fanbase, she is also an activist, a scholar, a barrier breaker and an all around great person. er song "Maize" is still on the top of my playlist and its topic - the negative impact of NAFTA on Mexican farmers is still as relevant as ever. Her new song Heaven Knows is a valentine letter set to lyrics for her wife, Jodie Granado. She and Jodie are both practicing Catholics and have created a scholarship fund for Catholic School girls they worked within Latin America - love knows no boundaries. There are so many more things I could say about Gina and the upcoming album. Lightbeam, but best just to tune in this Friday and her it yourself - and call in and talk to her.